Lancashire v Yorkshire (day one): Gale pleased with late wickets

Haseeb Hameed posted his third career Specsavers County Championship century before Lancashire lost six evening wickets for 61 to undo their earlier good work with the bat on day one against Yorkshire at Emirates Old Trafford.

Hameed’s first full season at the top of the Red Rose order has seen him reach 50 nine times in 19 innings, with this particular knock, a 209-ball 114, contributing to a home score of 299 for seven from 95.4 overs.

But they had been 238 for one before Tim Bresnan, Jack Brooks and Ryan Sidebottom intervened. Brooks finished with three for 51.

Hameed, 19, is now Lancashire’s leading Championship run-scorer in 2016 with 930.

Hameed shared 86 for the first wicket with Tom Smith, whose 46 was ended just after lunch when he was trapped lbw by Sidebottom.

Right-handed Hameed then built on the encouraging start with the help of Luke Procter, another man who is enjoying an impressive campaign.

Procter, a left-hander with a crouched stance, and Hameed shared 152 inside 39 overs for the second wicket through the majority of the afternoon and evening sessions.

Procter posted a fluent 79 off 128 balls with 14 boundaries, but he was the first of the post tea collapse.

No doubt Steven Croft won an important toss, meaning Yorkshire’s bowlers were given very little to work, but they were far from at their best, although obviously much improved after tea.

Adil Rashid, for example, struggled to find a consistent length on a pitch which is expected to turn significantly during the latter stages of the game.

Before tea, Hameed advanced down the pitch and on-drove Rashid twice for four before reaching his hundred off 189 balls with 14 fours midway through the evening.

By that time, Lancashire had gone beyond 200.

All of this happened just a week after Hameed, in last weekend’s draw against Hampshire at Southampton, had reached 1,000 career first-class runs in only his 15th match.

That made him Lancashire’s youngest batsman to reach 1,000 runs aged 19 years and 199 days.

If he continues this kind of form, he will play Test cricket for England much earlier than many good judges, including his coach Ashley Giles, expected.

Bresnan broke the second-wicket stand between Hameed and Procter when he had the latter caught behind on the drive as the score fell to 238 for two after 75 overs.

He then picked up the key wicket of Hameed at the end of the 77th when, with nine more runs added to the total, the opener was caught and bowled off a top-edged pull.

Brooks then had Steven Croft caught at slip by Bresnan with the new ball in the 84th over - 268 for four - before Sidebottom had Liam Livingstone caught behind for a duck in the 89th.

Brooks then had night-watchman Simon Kerrigan caught behind in the 92nd and forced Alviro Petersen to chop on in the day’s last over.

The day had started for Yorkshire with Jack Leaning, Azeem Rafiq and David Willey all receiving their county caps. Only Leaning is playing in this fixture.

Yorkshire captain Andrew Gale said: “I thought Lancashire played really well for the first two sessions. Hameed is one of the best young players I’ve seen in a long time.

“He’s an old-fashioned opening batter who occupies the crease and didn’t get out of his shell all day. He just played beautifully.

“What we did well was control the rate all day, and we felt if we could get a wicket after tea and then pick up a few more with the new ball, we’d have had a good day. We spoke about four or five down when we sat down at tea, so to have them seven down is great.

“We bowled ok all day. It was just a little spell after tea where Hameed got hold of Rash for a few overs.

“But we were tidy and put the ball in good areas, and we’d have definitely settled for that at the start of the day after them winning the toss.

“That was typically Brooksy. He bowled ok and then comes on and gets a few in a cluster. That’s how he does it.”

Lancashire opener Haseeb Hameed said: “Ideally we’d have been three or four down at the end of the day, but it goes to show that it can happen quickly on that wicket. At times it felt like wickets were going be really difficult to come by, but then again it can be difficult for a new batter to come in.

“Hopefully if we can build on today and get close to 400, every run is going to be vital. The wicket seems to be getting drier and the cracks wider.

“We were looking at 500 at one point, but now closer to 400. I’m really confident that the wicket’s going to be difficult to bat on last.

“It was frustrating for me not getting three figures last week (Hampshire), and the build up to a Roses game, my first one at home in front of my home crowd, was really good. It was a special moment for me to get there.”